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Is Buddhism a Religion?

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
Are any of the various Buddhisms -- or "branches of Buddhism" -- a religion?

If not, then why not? If your reasoning is that this or that branch of Buddhism fails to worship gods, then why is it necessary to worship gods before something is a religion? Do you have a solid reason for saying it is necessary to worship gods before something can be considered a religionn? Or are you just messing with us?
 

SalixIncendium

अग्निविलोवनन्दः
Staff member
Premium Member
As I see it, inasmuch as atheism is a religion.

I suppose it would depend on how one defines religion.

Either Buddhism or atheism can be if we use definitions two or three of the Merriam-Webster dictionary.

Definition of RELIGION
 

crossfire

LHP Mercuræn Feminist Heretic ☿
Premium Member
A path or worldview?

I have my "religion" listed as Advaitist Hindu, but because of my views, I still hesitate to call it a "religion."

But @Saint Frankenstein may have a valid point. My hesitation may be a result of conditioning.
I have no qualms calling Buddhism a religion. (Maybe because I'm loathe to allow the Abrahamics to hijack the word religion, perhaps.)
 

MikeDwight

Well-Known Member
Buddhism is totally interesting in adherence. The majority of women that light candles to a religion. Or the monastic tradition of the orange robed men. What is the effect on people in those regions?

How is it that these places assume that everyone is guilty of sleeping around and that they can imprison everyone else on this? Western Religion and society at least put sexuality mostly in a private context, purposefully even in the Testaments regulated and put sexual interaction in a strict channel of occurrence. In my experience, any sneaking suspicion, the wrong location, yo act strange, you could be years of denials being trumpeted as a confession, etc, games about making tiny confessions in construction paper into signed memo, etc etc. Buddhism doesn't seem to make any order for people.
 

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
As I see it, inasmuch as atheism is a religion.

Want to do a fun, fun, fun thought experiment my fashioned-challenged friend?

If so...

List all the traits or characteristics of Buddhism that are basically religious traits or characteristics. e.g. clergy, temples, holy or sacred scriptures, monks and nuns, etc, etc.

Now list all the traits or characteristics of Buddhism that are basically reasons for believing Buddhism is not a religion. e.g. worship and/or belief in deity is optional, rather than required. Plus what else?

Which list is longer? How much longer is it?
 

Unveiled Artist

Veteran Member
Are any of the various Buddhisms -- or "branches of Buddhism" -- a religion?

If not, then why not? If your reasoning is that this or that branch of Buddhism fails to worship gods, then why is it necessary to worship gods before something is a religion? Do you have a solid reason for saying it is necessary to worship gods before something can be considered a religion? Or are you just messing with us?

Buddhism is a religion. Secular Buddhism seems to part from the culture/traditions that make up the practice and theology of The Dharma. I feel secular buddhism is an influence of an christian environment. Every other person define religion as a political machine; so, it dilutes the purpose and beautiful of religion when compared to others.

A lot of people who worship in Buddhism, worship [give reverence or honor] Bodhisattvas and I don't know how many versions of Buddhas. I don't know which lineages put more focus on gods and goddesses than others but it's not in the abrahamic sense.

It's not necessary to honor the different incarnations of The Buddha and many don't honor the bodhisattvas given their school and/or lineage. Worshiping gods isn't the central theme of Practice; so, it depends on the person.
 

Dawnofhope

Non-Proselytizing Baha'i
Staff member
Premium Member
Are any of the various Buddhisms -- or "branches of Buddhism" -- a religion?

If not, then why not? If your reasoning is that this or that branch of Buddhism fails to worship gods, then why is it necessary to worship gods before something is a religion? Do you have a solid reason for saying it is necessary to worship gods before something can be considered a religionn? Or are you just messing with us?

Being married to someone who is nominally Buddhist and having been to Japan on several occasions Buddhism certainly appears to be a religion. As stated by another, the drive to classify it as 'not a religion' appears to be driven by some Westerners, presumably based on the questionable premise that Buddhism is atheistic. While Buddhism is practiced by many who consider themselves atheists in the West, there are clearly theistic aspects to a Buddhist world view in at least some places where it has been practiced for centuries.
 

siti

Well-Known Member
there are clearly theistic aspects to a Buddhist world view
OK - thanks Adrian - you've got my mind back on the pertinent (as opposed to impertinent) question...

I think that needs a bit more data - what are these 'theistic aspects'? And does having a worldview with 'theistic aspects' make that worldview a religion?
 

MikeDwight

Well-Known Member
Good catch siti! Good catch! A joke! Skipping ahead...
All people like to say over there is syncretism, hindu is from buddhism, is from Shintoism, but they have Establishment movements. They have Choices in history. How is it they all seem to despise butchery?
 

Dawnofhope

Non-Proselytizing Baha'i
Staff member
Premium Member
OK - thanks Adrian - you've got my mind back on the pertinent (as opposed to impertinent) question...

I think that needs a bit more data - what are these 'theistic aspects'? And does having a worldview with 'theistic aspects' make that worldview a religion?

Pure Land Buddhism is an example of Buddhism that most here would consider theistic, even a few of the sceptics.

Pure Land Buddhism and Amitābha Buddha

NB I started another thread exploring to what extent Buddha was a theist.

To what extent was Gautama Buddha a theist or an atheist?
 

siti

Well-Known Member
All people like to say over there is syncretism, hindu is from buddhism, is from Shintoism, but they have Establishment movements. They have Choices in history. How is it they all seem to despise butchery?
Syncretism? Butchery? I'm afraid you have lost me entirely!
 

steveb1

Member
According to my definition of religion, Buddhism is a religion.

In my view, a religion must offer, or at least claim to offer, an immediate connection to a "sacred Transcendent" (which of course goes by many names in many different schools, philosophies, religions and spiritual systems).

If a system calls itself, or is called, a religion but it does not claim to offer contact or merger with a sacred Transcendent, then it is not a religion at all, but rather a social-uplift club, a self-help model, or some other "secular" paradigm.

This is why I do not think of, or call, secular, "atheist" or "modernist" Buddhists real Buddhists, for the simple reason that they deny that Buddhism does not offer connection to the sacred Transcendent, and worse, because they deny that such a Transcendent exists in the first place. Their "Buddhism" is really only a grab bag of materialist-reductionist redaction of Buddhistic teaching.

The Buddha himself was not an atheist - on the contrary, he believed in Gods, high and low, as well as an abundance of paraphysical heavenly and earthly entities.

Buddha only denied the existence of one single high Creator God. As to the others, he taught that Buddhahood, not Godhood, is the highest state that sentient beings can attain. Thus Buddha did not deny gods and superhuman entities. Rather, he simply depotentiated them and encouraged their worshipers to seek their own Enlightenment instead of pursuing an impossible salvation mediated by deities.

Finally, the Buddha did teach connection to a sacred Transcendent when he expanded his teaching that all things are impermanent into a teaching that all "earthly" or "Samsaric" things are impermanent, whereas Bodhi and the Dharma are the "Unborn", the "Uncreated", the "Unconditioned", and the "Lasting". Those who deny Buddha's central transcendental teaching cannot objectively call themselves Buddhists.
 

siti

Well-Known Member
Pure Land Buddhism is an example of Buddhism that most here would consider theistic, even a few of the sceptics.

Pure Land Buddhism and Amitābha Buddha
Hmmm! Well I did ask for more data didn't I! And of course you are right that there are Buddhist religions...I have little knowledge of Japanese Buddhism - despite having had a Japanese Buddhist as a house guest for over a year and a half. My suspicion is (doing a bit of word association based on @MikeDwight 's post) that there's a bit of syncretism going on there...I'm pretty sure that as far as can be discerned (which is admittedly not terribly far) you couldn't have got to "Pure Land" Buddhism off the teachings of Gautama Buddha - which seem - for the most part (and as far as can be discerned...) not to be theistic at all and to a fair extent to be generally against religion - or at least against religious devotion to deities. Wouldn't you say?
 
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